


He lit a fire with icicles

by Alecto



Series: tumblr drabbles [15]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Meetings, Heian Period, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 12:04:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19376341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/pseuds/Alecto
Summary: Seto never expected to find his matched "oshidori" mark. Not in this lifetime at least.





	He lit a fire with icicles

**Author's Note:**

> Don't mind me. Just archiving things from tumblr.

The lord, as minor as he was, had some nerve to keep Seto waiting. His fingers flexed toward the Pledge on his inner wrist, but Seto caught himself. He forced his hands to remain at his side. 

The chain of runes lengthened with his age, growing ever more intricate with each passing year. He wondered if it would overtake the underside of his arm given enough time. When he was younger, he adored it for its beauty. Then he’d despised it, resented that it may bind him to an obligation to be held above Mokuba. But now at twenty-two? Seto was too burnt out and hollowed to feel anything about the Pledge. The habit of touching it– to see his magic roiling to the surface, though, stuck with him.

His sleeves hid his Pledge from the Court’s prying eyes, though he often caught courtiers trying to catch a glimpse. He counted himself lucky because he’d seen others that carried theirs in far more conspicuous places, like their face and neck.  

Instead, he eyed his shabby surroundings with distaste. The Jounouchi clan, rumored to be fearless and skilled soldiers to this day, fell out of imperial favor several generations ago. They kept their name, their crest, their ancestral home, and little else. Nowhere was that more evident than the estate’s disrepair. It was no wonder that Gozaburo saw this visit as beneath him and sent Seto in his stead.

He sipped his chilled tea and grimaced. It tasted like the sort of dredge sold in a commoner’s shop. Seto resolved not to drink another drop, no matter how impolite he came off.

“Not to your liking, huh?” a male voice asked from the room’s entrance.

Seto tensed. Behind him, the shoji doors slid closed with a soft snick and steady footfall circumvented him. His gaze started with the bare feet framed by the frayed hems, traveled up the length of a dark hakama and kimono top, and settled on the man’s face. He was Seto’s age and had tied his shaggy blond hair back in a short ponytail.

“You’re not Lord Jounouchi,” he said with a deep frown.

The man folded into a sloppy seiza on the tatami floor. “My father is currently…indisposed. I am his son, Jounouchi Katsuya,” then he added with an edge of mocking, “And you’re not Lord Kaiba.”

“I am his ward.” Seto returned his hands to his knees and straightened his spine. “My guardian had important matters to attend to today. He sends his regrets and has implored me to ask after your father.”

His eyebrow shot into his hairline when Jounouchi muttered “horseshit” under his breath. Though he agreed with the sentiment, he hadn’t expected vulgarity. Being barred from imperial court apparently meant forgetting proper manners and etiquette.

“Your tea must be cold. Allow me.”

Before Seto could object, Jounouchi rolled up his right sleeve, revealing a long Pledge that adorned his forearm like an archer’s gauntlet. He covered Seto’s teacup with his palm and a fiery red flashed through the runes’ whorls and vines. A spark of flames struck the tea’s surface, coaxing a cloud of steam into the air. Jounouchi repeated the process with the teapot next.

“Handy, ain’t it?” Jounouchi bragged.

Usually, Seto would have shown him a true display of power after a parlor trick like that. But he couldn’t tear his eyes off the Pledge on Jounouchi’s arm. Cold welled up inside him, but he couldn’t be sure if that was his magic or dread brewing. The tendrils of Jounouchi’s Pledge twisted into a new arrangement, one that clearly spelled the characters for honor.

The temperature in the room dropped and Jounouchi shivered, but his pride and defiance shone through. “What’s wrong, Kaiba-sama? Never seen a Pledge before?”

Seto placed his left arm on the table. As he peeled back his silk sleeve, a fine frost crept across the wood, extinguishing the steam rising from the tea. His Pledge looked no different to his eyes, but Jounouchi’s widened with shock and his face went ashen. 

Despite what fortunetellers may claim, it was impossible to determine the exact nature of the karmic ties (and debts owed) before corresponding Pledges found one another. Seto thought he could have lived this lifetime without finding out. Yet watching a fragile hope dawn over Jounouchi’s face, Seto couldn’t leave without learning what Jounouchi saw in his. 

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the rest of the story in not-fic outline form: <https://alectoperdita.tumblr.com/post/154444670690/i-have-a-phone-interview-tomorrow-but-rather-than>
> 
> Maybe one thing I can get my head in order to write more in this verse.


End file.
